Success Is 50% Merit and 50% Luck — Don’t Get It Twisted

The story you’re told is not always true

The idea of success is being oversold in the world today. It developed in a way that those who succeed are the righteous ones and those who fail are lazy — not serious about making something out for themselves.

In the world right now, people talk about success as if people only achieve it due to their ultimate desire for it, and their counterparts, who fail to succeed, only lack the desire — which to some extent — is valid but not entirely true.

If you look critically at the factors that lead people to be successful, you will know that it is not about talent and hard work alone.

Yes, some people with the opportunities available to them become failures as they don’t work hard. But half of those societies treat as failures aren’t the actual ones.

In most of the cases, they fail because the right options are not available to them at the right time.

Now, why do I say success is 50% merit and 50% luck, and what do I mean by that?

Let’s see.

The 50% Merit

According to the Oxford Dictionary, merit is the quality of being particularly good or worthy, especially so as to deserve praise or reward.

When a person with the talent, ability, and passion work hard to achieve his/her dream, generally he/she gets rewarded in the end.

‘By your input, your output is determined’.

So, talents mingled with hard works become merit. And to achieve success, it plays a crucial role as it sets the direction towards betterment.

No doubt, merit is inevitable to go on the road to success. But having the talents alone towards something isn’t enough to become successful. It will help if you put in the work but a fair share of luck is necessary to thrive.

The 50% Luck

These are the chances, opportunities, and advantages available to the individual. It involves connections, financial and emotional support by others that contribute to the actualization of the dream.

And when someone lacks these, no matter the effort and work he/she puts into achieving success, things don’t work.

For whoever has will be given more, and they will have an abundance. Whoever does not have, even what they have will be taken from them. — Mathew 25:29

That with equal talent and potential, some people with a lack of opportunity or by systemic failure, don’t get to realize their dreams.

In his book, The Outliers, author Malcolm Gladwell explores the story of success, analyzing some of the successful people in the world and concludes that some of these successful people are not only by the work they put into their craft but by the opportunities that they had.

He emphasized the music band The Beatles. And how by chance to play a show in Hamburg, Germany opened the door for them to play more shows there than in London, where they come from. It allowed them to play for longer hours because of the patronage they had.

Same way, there’re some people out there with the same talent and potential, but with no luck or opportunity, they couldn’t achieve success no matter what hard works they put in.

It’s where the issue of whom you were born to, where you were born, time, the cultural orientation, and the opportunities available comes into play.

Therefore, comparing someone born in North America who had a good education, parental and systemic support to someone born in some countryside in Africa, where access to education was and still, is a problem and labeling one successful and the other, failure doesn’t sum up.

Because the two people didn’t have the same advantages, although they may have had the same potential.

And that’s the role of luck or opportunity when it comes to success.

Final Thoughts

As much as we admire those who defy the odds to reach their dreams, and we draw inspiration and motivation from their stories, not all that you see and hear is true.

What goes into one becoming successful is beyond that which they tell you.

So before you judge someone as a failure or successful the next time, ask yourself where they’re coming from and to whom they were born, whether there was an opportunity for them or not, as hard work alone doesn’t guarantee success, but other factors come into play.

Thank you for reading